Puppet MastersS


Bizarro Earth

I killed people in Afghanistan. Was I right or wrong?

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© Photo: John Minchillo/APMarine Capt. Timothy Kudo
When I joined the Marine Corps, I knew I would kill people. I was trained to do it in a number of ways, from pulling a trigger to ordering a bomb strike to beating someone to death with a rock. As I got closer to deploying to war in 2009, my lethal abilities were refined, but my ethical understanding of killing was not.

I held two seemingly contradictory beliefs: Killing is always wrong, but in war, it is necessary. How could something be both immoral and necessary?

I didn't have time to resolve this question before deploying. And in the first few months, I fell right into killing without thinking twice. We were simply too busy to worry about the morality of what we were doing.

But one day in Afghanistan in 2010, my patrol got into a firefight and ended up killing two people on a motorcycle who we thought were about to attack us. They ignored or didn't understand our warnings to stop, and according to the military's "escalation of force" guidelines, we were authorized to shoot them in self-defense. Although we thought they were armed, they turned out to be civilians. One looked no older than 16.

It's been more than two years since we killed those people on the motorcycle, and I think about them every day. Sometimes it's when I'm reading the news or watching a movie, but most often it's when I'm taking a shower or walking down my street in Brooklyn.

Eye 2

The United States promotes Israeli genocide against the Palestinians

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In direct reaction to Israel provoking the Al Aqsa Intifada, on October 19, 2000, the then United Nations Human Rights Commission (now Council) condemned Israel for inflicting "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" upon the Palestinian people, some of whom are Christians, but most of whom are Muslims.[i]

This Special Session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights adopted the Resolution set forth in U.N. Document E/CN.4/S-5/L.2/Rev. 1, "Condemning the provocative visit to Al-Haram Al-Shariff on 28 September 2000 by Ariel Sharon, the Likud party leader, which triggered the tragic events that followed in occupied East Jerusalem and the other occupied Palestinian territories, resulting in a high number of deaths and injuries among Palestinian civilians." The U.N. Human Rights Commission said it was "[g]ravely concerned" about several different types of atrocities inflicted by Israel upon the Palestinian people, which it denominated "war crimes, flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity."

Propaganda

Explosion at Fordow: Israeli propaganda or Iran's biggest secret?

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© Reuters / HandoutIran’s Fordow nuclear facility
Contradictory reports of an explosion at Iran's uranium enrichment site have been emerging. Iran denies it ever happened, calling it "Western propaganda" while Israel confirms it, putting tensions around upcoming nuclear talks.

Reports of the explosion at the underground Fordow plant, near the city of Qom, central-northern Iran, originally surfaced on Friday after a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Reza Kahlili, published his report on the WND.com website.

Iran has denied the reports, while Israel and some of US media reported that the explosion occurred and caused significant damage.

The West has maintained that the Fordow plant (which was discovered in 2009) has been producing uranium enriched to 20 per cent fissile purity since late 2011, compared to the 3.5 per cent level required for nuclear energy plants, and has been operating 700 centrifuges there since the start of the year.

Vader

Islamist insurgents torch library containing ancient Mali manuscripts

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© AFP Photo
Fleeing Islamist insurgents burnt two buildings containing priceless books as French-led troops approached, says mayor

Islamist insurgents retreating from the ancient Saharan city of Timbuktu have set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless ancient manuscripts, some dating back to the 13th century, in what the town's mayor described as a "devastating blow" to world heritage.

Hallé Ousmani Cissé told the Guardian that al-Qaida-allied fighters on Saturday torched two buildings where the manuscripts were being kept. They also burned down the town hall and governor's office, and shot dead a man who was celebrating the arrival of the French military.

French troops and the Malian army reached the gates of Timbuktu on Saturday and secured the town's airport. But they appear to have got there too late to save the leather-bound manuscripts, which were a unique record of sub-Saharan Africa's medieval history.

Folder

Blacklist used by construction firms to disrupt environmental protests

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© Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PAA road protester near Crowhurst, Sussex: over half of the UK's top construction firms are thought to have been involved in keeping a blacklist of environmental activists.
Industry found to have files on more than 200 activists, provided by security services or police - prompting calls for official inquiry

Hundreds of environmental activists were on a secret "blacklist" used by construction firms in an attempt to disrupt high-profile protests against road building and other developments.

Files on more than 200 campaigners were held alongside a list of more than 3,000 construction workers who had raised legitimate health and safety concerns or belonged to a trade union.

Last week MPs said the list had deprived thousands of people of work and driven some families to destitution. Evidence of the growing scale of the operation carried out by the Consulting Association has led to renewed calls for an official inquiry.

Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, told the Guardian: "This is greatly concerning and we still don't know what the full scale of the blacklisting scandal was. In light of this new evidence, it is crucial that a full investigation of blacklisting commences."

During a debate on blacklisting in parliament last week, Umunna said more than half of the top 20 construction firms in the UK were involved.

Ambulance

At least 19 killed in Yemen in two separate attacks

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© AFP PhotoYemeni soldiers stand guard outside the Al Saleh mosque during a memorial service to commemorate the victims of a suicide bombing in Abyan province on August 5, 2012, in Sanaa.
In two separate attacks, a car bomb and a suicide bomber have killed at least 19 people in Yemen on Monday.

A car bomb has killed at least 11 killed and injured 17 in Rida city, 100 miles south east of the Yemeni capital, Al Arabiya correspondent reported Monday.

Also, a suicide bomber killed at least eight Yemeni soldiers on Monday after troops backed by tanks attacked an al-Qaeda stronghold, al-Bayda province, a following the collapse of talks to free three Western hostages, local officials and residents said.

Tackling lawlessness in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state, which flanks the world's biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia, is an international priority. The United States views Yemen as a frontline in its struggle against al-Qaeda.

Stormtrooper

New Arizona bill wants hospitals policing immigration

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© rui vale sousa/Shutterstock
The state that brought you SB 1070, perhaps the harshest immigration law in the nation, is at it again with a bill that could bring illegal immigrant-hunting into new territory: hospitals.

Proposed last week by Republican state Rep. Steve Smith, HB 2293 would require hospital workers to verify the immigration status of uninsured people seeking care. They'd have to make note of any undocumented patient, and then call the police.

Speaking outside the Arizona capitol on Thursday, Rep. Smith called it simply "a data-collection bill" to figure out how much Arizona is spending on illegal immigrant care, promising that no one would be denied treatment or deported once their status is disclosed.

V

Violent protests greet Egypt emergency decree

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© REUTERS/Amr Abdallah DalshRiot policemen beat a protester opposing Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, during clashes along Qasr Al Nil bridge, which leads to Tahrir Square in Cairo January 28, 2013. Monday was the fifth day of violence in Egypt that has killed 50 people and prompted the Islamist president to declare a state of emergency in an attempt to end a wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world's biggest nation.
A man was shot dead on Monday in a fifth day of violence in Egypt that has killed 50 people and prompted the Islamist president to declare a state of emergency in an attempt to end a wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world's biggest nation.

Under emergency powers announced by President Mohamed Mursi for the cities of Port Said, Ismailia and Suez on Sunday, the army will have the right to arrest civilians and to help police restore order.

A cabinet source told Reuters any trials would be before civilian courts, but the step is likely to anger protesters who accuse Mursi of using high-handed security tactics of the kind they fought against to oust president Hosni Mubarak.

Star of David

Israel uses deadly weapons on unarmed Palestinian protesters - watchdog

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© Reuters / STRProtesters run as an Israeli Army truck fires a water cannon, containing a foul-smelling substance, during clashes with stone-throwing protesters in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah
Israel is using lethal force on unarmed Palestinian protesters in the West Bank, according to the latest report by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. It says 56 people were killed in the clashes, with an average age of 18.

In the 31-page report, B'Tselem accused Israeli security forces of having "extensively and systematically violated" rules that ban deadly response to a non-lethal assault. B'Tselem has been working on the report, 'Crowd Control: Israel's use of Crowd Control Weapons in the West Bank' for the past year.

Only in the past fortnight, the Israeli military shot dead two Palestinians in the clashes.

Since 2005, six people were killed by rubber-coated metal bullets and two by teargas canisters, both supposedly non-lethal weapons which were fired directly at protesters, according to B'Tselem.

Live ammunition was utilized in other 48 cases of death. The average age of those killed was reportedly 18-and-a-half.

The typical riot dispersal tools of security forces include teargas, rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades, live ammunition, skunk and water cannons, pepper spray, and sponge rounds - non-lethal weapons which are not dangerous for long-term health if used correctly.

Display

Report: Pentagon planning massive cybersecurity increase

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The US Department of Defense has approved a fivefold expansion of its cybersecurity force over the coming years in a bid to increase its ability to defend critical computer networks, The Washington Post reported.

Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said the Defense Department's Cyber Command, which currently has a staff of about 900, will expand to about 4,900 troops and civilians.

The decision to expand the Cyber Command was made by senior Pentagon officials late last year in recognition of a growing threat in cyberspace, the report said.

Last November, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta conceded that US cybersecurity needed more financial support and human capital.